As VARO celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, I am delighted to announce another chapter in VARO’s proud history.
We have a clear ambition to be a leader in the provision of low carbon energy solutions and to accelerate the energy transition.
In pursuit of this, we are actively progressing a new strategy to transform our company.
I am convinced that our strengths - operational excellence, trading prowess, customer intimacy, entrepreneurship, agility and the ability to attract the best talents - will be key ingredients to our future success.
The transformation of VARO will firmly establish our position as a leading European energy transition company.
To capitalize on the enormous opportunities ahead of us, we also need to adapt our management structure and ways of working. Today, I am pleased to announce the composition of our Executive Board. These appointments will be effective 1st February 2022.
Our Executive Board is small in size in order to be agile, but extensive in the experiences of its members.
View organisational chart
As Executive Vice President (EVP) and Chief Operating Officer, Julian Stoll will focus on the safe, reliable and efficient delivery of our existing business. This role is critical to ensuring a safe and stable platform to further expand our activities and to build new businesses to serve our customers.
The position of EVP Strategy and Transformation will, together with the Executive Board, design the future of VARO and our new strategy. A critical aspect of the role is to also set our forward ESG targets, identify partnerships and acquisitions which will accelerate our transformation, and to strategically leverage the opportunities offered by new technologies.
I have asked Ernestina Benedetto to lead this area and she will fill the role of EVP Strategy and Transformation in the interim.
Rick Klop will be EVP and Chief Financial Officer. He will be accountable for the financial management of our company, including reporting, controls and compliance, and will also lead the transformation of our supporting services, including IT and digitalization. He will oversee the delivery of the Business Simplification Project.
Rick will also be instrumental in building our financial framework and finding new and innovative ways to finance our growth.
Theo Pannekeet will be EVP New Energies and Innovation. Building on the rapid growth in this area, he will be responsible for accessing new business opportunities and creating new building blocks of the new VARO in alignment with our new strategy.
Gilles Vollin will continue to lead our People function and will assume the expanded role of EVP Integration and Capability. He will act as an enabler of the VARO transformation with responsibilities for organization and people development, new capabilities, communications and positioning of our company.
In addition, I have asked Sacha Konan to lead work on further developing our customer value proposition to enhance cross product offers and solutions in the context of their changing needs with the energy transition.
Sacha will work closely with Barbara Mühlemann, Michael Liekens and the
Strategy team.
We have an exciting journey ahead of us. However, as always, we must remain focused on keeping our operations safe and ensuring compliance in everything we do as we pursue the tremendous opportunities ahead of us.
With thanks,
Dev